H.S. BASEBALL: Oliver Ames roars back for victory

The Tigers come back from a 6-0 deficit to earn an 8-7 victory over Mansfield on Thursday.

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By Ken LechtanskiEnterprise Correspondent

The Enterprise, Brockton, MA

By Ken LechtanskiEnterprise Correspondent

Posted Apr. 3, 2014 at 9:53 PM
Updated Apr 3, 2014 at 9:57 PM

By Ken LechtanskiEnterprise Correspondent

Posted Apr. 3, 2014 at 9:53 PM
Updated Apr 3, 2014 at 9:57 PM

» Social News

EASTON – The families and fans who turned out for Oliver Ames’ baseball season opener at Frothingham Park wound up being treated to an unscheduled doubleheader.

At least that was the way the Tigers’ improbable comeback win over Mansfield played out on Thursday.

For the first five innings, it appeared that the changing of the Hockomock League guard was at hand, with the Hornets shutting out the four-time defending Davenport Division and Hockomock League champs, 6-0, behind the two-hit pitching of senior lefty curveball specialist Jeff Perillo.

Oliver Ames, however, showed Mansfield that it is far from ready to relinquish its crown.

The Tigers’ slumbering lumber awoke just in time to push across a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth and then struck for six more runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a wild 8-7 thriller in dramatic fashion.

Nick Charleston’s walk-off single with two out in the seventh brought home Joe Walsh from second base with the game-winner, sending the Oliver Ames bench stampeding onto the field to first greet Walsh at the plate and then mob Charleston at first base.

“Give the kids credit, they got down and just didn’t give up,” said longtime Oliver Ames coach Leo Duggan. “It’s a tribute to the kids. We’ve got a winning program here and we have a tradition. I don’t know how we did it, but the kids won. I’m just along for the ride.”

It was a wild ride for Duggan to start out his 27th season as the Tigers’ varsity coach. With Perillo having faced just three batters over the minimum 15 through the first five innings and Oliver Ames staring a six-run deficit in the face with six outs to go the Tigers seemed trapped. But senior center fielder Mike Ferrara got Oliver Ames going with the first of his two triples to lead off the sixth, scoring the hosts first run two batters later on a Perillo wild pitch with Brendan Welch at the plate. Welch then doubled home Adam Burr, who had walked, to make it 6-2 before Perillo escaped further damage by getting John McMillan to fly out for the final out of the inning with runners at the corners.

Mansfield tacked on another run in the top of the seventh when Will Kelleher scored from third on a wild pitch by Brad Capece, the fourth Oliver Ames pitcher of the day, to regain a commanding 7-2 lead going into the Tigers’ final at-bat.

Then, Oliver Ames got to work, sending 10 batters to the plate in the seventh. Charleston, who went 3-for-4 to spark the Tigers’ 11-hit attack, led off the inning with an infield single. After a walk to Brian Holmes, Ferrera knocked in both base runners with a triple to deep center field to signal the end for Perillo, who allowed seven hits and struck out eight over six-plus innings.

Page 2 of 3 - “I probably should have taken him out a little bit earlier, but he just ran out of juice,” Mansfield head coach Tim Graham said. “He’s a bulldog. He’ll be good for the rest of the year.”

Adam Burr greeted reliever Evan Kershaw by drilling a RBI double to just in front of the tree in center field, closing the gap to 7-5 and then Welch singled to left to put the tying run at first base. After Kershaw got David Romero on a close check-swing strikeout for the first out of the inning, Burr beat out Kerhaw’s flip to catcher will Kelleher on a dribbler in front of the plate off the bat of Walsh to make it a one-run game.

Nolan Edwards tied it with a clean RBI single to left on the first pitch to him, scoring Welch. Kershaw got McMillan to foul out to first base for the inning’s second out, but Charleston capped the comeback by lacing an 0-1 offering into right to end it.

“I was just waiting for a nice pitch and obviously drove it,” Charleston said. “You couldn’t ask for a better ending than that.”

Maybe not for Oliver Ames, but Graham certainly could have asked for better for Mansfield, which managed only five hits, but took advantage of four Oliver Ames’ errors and four stolen bases.

“I think we played hard in two of the first five innings and then just stopped playing, and in high school baseball, you’ve got to play seven full innings,” Graham said. “If you don’t, you give the other team the opportunity to come back and do what they just did. Hopefully, it’s a lesson learned.”

The final two innings not only proved memorable for the Tigers, but also helped erase a forgettable early performance in the field, as well as on the mound where four Oliver Ames pitchers combined for four wild pitches and three hit batsmen to put the hosts in a nearly inescapable hole.

“We usually have a tendency to do stupid things,” Duggan said. “We make it interesting for our paying customers.”

Returning only three starters from last season’s Div. 1 South Sectional tourney squad, which went 15-6, Oliver Ames’ inexperience showed early as Mansfield scored three runs in each the first and third innings to build an early 6-0 cushion off Tigers starting pitcher Alex Geba, who allowed four hits while striking out a pair in his three innings.

Zac Courier and Steve Valeri had a pair of two-run singles for Mansfield, which had five hits and stranded eight base runners.

Page 3 of 3 - Charleston noted that the win will be one that Oliver Ames can expect to get some extended mileage out of over the next several games.

“Coming up big like this gives you the confidence at bat,” Charleston said. “Just the fact that we were hitting the ball far, you can’t overlook that. We have a couple games coming up and if they’re close, we’ll definitely try to carry that over.”